Inflation sizzles to 1.7% in Sept

Consumer prices in September climbed to their highest level in six months, driven by upticks in food and transport costs, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

- LOUELLA DESIDERIO and KEISHA TA-ASAN

National Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a press conference yesterday that headline inflation, which measures the change in the average cost of goods and services typically bought by Filipinos, quickened to 1.7 percent in September from 1.5 percent in August.

This marked the fastest increase since inflation hit 1.8 percent in March.

The September inflation print, however, was slower than the 1.9 percent registered in the same month last year.

It also fell within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)'s forecast of 1.5 to 2.3 percent for the month of September.

The slightly faster inflation in September was driven mainly by the one percent uptick in transport costs from a 0.3-percent decline in August.

Food and nonalcoholic beverages also drove the uptrend in overall inflation as it registered a slightly faster increase of one percent in September from the previous month’s 0.9 percent.

Excluding nonalcoholic beverages, food inflation rose at a slightly faster pace of 0.8 percent in September from 0.6 percent in August. This was driven by vegetables, which picked up by 19.4 percent from 10 percent.

Mapa said this is the highest inflation print for vegetables since the 20.1 percent seen in January.

“The rains and floods particularly in vegetable-producing areas had an impact in August and September,” Mapa said.

According to Mapa, vegetable inflation is expected to remain elevated due to storms.

Rice inflation, meanwhile, eased slightly to 16.9 percent in September from the previous month’s 17 percent.